


Better Off With You

by soslash



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Domestic Violence, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1596059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soslash/pseuds/soslash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis’ the cute bookshop owner who asks Niall how he got the scars by his left eye. He’s one of the only people who’s nice to Niall. It just makes it harder for Niall to lie to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Off With You

For the last two weeks, the days have all been quite dark and dreary. Niall didn’t mind though, even if he’s walking to and from work every day. It’s just what he would expect in downtown London. Although, today he isn’t too keen on walking all the way home considering how sore he is in the worst possible places. For the most part, he’s gotten use to the roughness of it all, but Kye was really upset about something at work last night. Niall wasn’t even sure what.

He manages to walk slow and steady enough to not show any of his discomfort, but it’s getting harder to make his stride appear normal, so he turns into one of the first shops he sees.

When he walks in, the first thing he notices is the smell of printed pages. It’s a bookshop. His eyes drift over the shelves lining the walls and along the tables covered in new releases.

"Afternoon," a voice calls from the register.

Niall turns and nods at the at the young looking man.

"Can I help you find anything?" he asks, walking around the counter he’s standing behind.

"Um," Niall looks around awkwardly, suddenly remembering there had actually been a novel he was meaning to read. "Do you have To Kill a Mockingbird?" he asks.

"Course!" he says, nodding his head towards one of the shelves on the other side of the shop and walking towards them. Niall follows behind, much slower though. "It should be around here somewhere," he mutters to himself as his pointer finger grazes over each book spine. "Ah, here it is!"

"You alright?" the man asks. Niall hadn’t realized that he’d flinched at the sight of the guy’s hand lifting to take the novel off the shelf.

"Uh, yeah," he stutters, "Yeah, I’m fine."

Niall takes it and follows the owner to the front counter and pays for the book. “Thanks,” he says, stuffing it into his coat so it won’t get wet when he goes outside. “Can’t wait to read it.”

"Why don’t you start it now?"

Niall stops and looks towards the chairs set up for reading in. The entire reason he came in here was to sit and rest for a moment, but now he’s grown a bit worried about his time.

"At least until the rain clears."

"Yeah, sure," Niall says, "until the rain clears."

Everything is very quiet, due to the emptiness of the store as Niall sits in one of the large chairs and opens the book. He can tell that it’s a used copy. He likes that, though. He doesn’t have to worry about cracking the spine or damaging the cover since someone already has.

The owner’s walking around, placing more books onto shelves, reorganizing some of the tables. Niall looks up from the novel—even though he’s become quite entranced by the first few pages of the story—and the man looks over his should at him. He flashes a friendly smile.

"Do you mind me asking," he starts, "how exactly did you get those scars?"

Niall brings his left hand to the spot near his eye where he knows a few faint, pink lines are showing.

"Bike accident," he lies. At least he thinks that’s what he used to tell people; he hasn’t been asked about it in so long. "I was twelve and some kids dared me to go down this hill near my house. Not a good idea."

The man laughs. “That sounds like something I would’ve done when I was twelve,” he says, sitting down in the seat next to his and begins telling a story about his childhood.

Niall listens intently. It’s a good story. They laugh a bit, talk about some other things, and the conversation flows quite nicely. This surprises Niall because he isn’t normally someone who easily talks to people. The only person he really talks to is Kye.

"Do you work for Gladwell Printers?" he asks, pointing at the label on Niall’s coat. "My ex-boyfriend worked there, probably still does."

So, he’s gay. That doesn’t make a difference. He’s just talking to this guy. He already has someone whom he loves to meet at home. This is just a conversation.

"Uh, no, my husband actually owns it," he says. "I work at the daycare center down the street."

The man looks a bit surprised by is answer. “You’re married to the owner? But he…” He trails off and shake’s head, “nevermind. It’s none of my business.” Niall’s curious to what he was going to say but doesn’t stop him. “So, you work at the daycare,” he changes the subject, “hows that?”

Niall’s eyes flash towards the clock on the wall, sending him jolting out of his seat. “Actually, I really need to be going,” he explains. “I don’t know how I lost track of time. Nice meeting you!”

And like that, he’s out. He thinks he might have heard a “You too!” yelled back to him, but he’s already six steps out the door. He walks as fast as he can, ignoring the lower body pain to the best of his ability.

It wasn’t any use, though. As soon as his flat building was in sight he could see the silver Lexis parked in it’s designated spot.

When he nervously opens the door, he spots Kye sitting at the table with a glass in his hand.

"Hey, babe," he says, trying to sound happy to see him.

Kye looks over his shoulder at Niall. “Where the hell have you been,” he says.

Niall steps closer, about to sit at the table with Kye, but he gets up and walks into the kitchen. “I’m really sorry. I stopped by a bookshop on the way home and lost track of time.”

"For fucks sake, Niall!" He says, almost yelling, setting the glass down hard. "I ask you to do one thing!" Niall cowers away a bit. "All I want is to come home from a long day at work to my husband, maybe a nice meal, and relax a little. Apparently that’s too much to ask for! What were you even doing at bookshop for two and a half hours, anyway?"

Niall’s leaning against the wall, avoiding eye contact. “I- I got caught up talking to someone. I’m really sorry.”

Kye lets out a deep sigh. “I know you are,” he says with a suddenly softer tone, walking to Niall and bringing him into a hug, swaying him back and forth, kissing his ear. “Just watch the time is all I ask.” Niall nods. “So, who were you talking to for so long anyway.”

His heart skips. His mind starts moving at a mile a minute, trying to find answer to the seemingly casual question. He knows better than to think it’s just a conversation starter. “The owner,” he answers, “He, um, saw my jacket and knows someone who works for your company.”

"Yeah?" Kye says softly, rubbing his hands up and down the other lad’s back. His voice seems a bit startled by what Niall’s words. Nobody at his work knows that he’s gay and letting his  _husband_  talk it up with friends of employees isn’t the best way to hide it. Niall doesn’t know how he’s going to explain; he can’t use the word ex- _boyfriend_  because that will provoke more questions like any gay male always does. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to think about it. “That all you talked about with this guy?”

His hands twitch when he hears him say ‘this guy’. He should have avoided pronouns. He shouldn’t have talked to him in the first place, he should have left as soon as he bought the book.

The book. He left his book there.

"Yeah," Niall answers, blocking out his current thoughts, "never even caught his name."

"Oh," Kye says pulling away. "Have you eaten anything?"

"Course not," Niall smiles. "I’ll get started on dinner."

He can’t help but feel a sigh of relief, watching the other man walk into the living room, looking content.

The next day at work, he thinks about To Kill a Mockingbird. He considers ordering it online so he can finish reading, but it feels wasteful.

On his way home, he eyes the familiar sign as he approaches the bookstore. He didn’t do anything wrong yesterday. He can innocently go into a bookstore as long as he has a reason to.

When he walks through the door, too distracted trying to convince himself why this is okay to see the person walking out, he bumps him as they pass each other. The tall woman accidentally hits him against a bruise on his arm that’s been healing for only a few days.

"Oh, I’m sorry," she says as they past.

"Oh, no, I’m sorry," Niall repents quickly, holding his arm. "It was me."

The look in her eye seems a bit confused by how nervous Niall must seem, but she turns and walks away. He walks up to the counter, where the owner is finishing up with a customer.

Before Niall even says anything, he reaches under the counter and pulls out his copy. “Looking for this?” he asks with a cheeky smile.

Niall can’t help but smile back as he takes the book being handed to him. “Yeah, thanks,” he says, “Guess I forgot it when I rushed out of here.”

"Guess so," he says, "do you have somewhere to be again or can your stick around?"

Niall holds the book close to his chest. “I have to go, actually,” he says apologetically, taking a step backwards.

"Before you go," the man stops him, "I never caught your name?"

"Oh, uh… Niall."

"Niall," he repeats. "Well, my name’s Louis."

Niall smiles again and nods. “Well, it’s been nice getting to know you, Louis.”

"You too," Louis says, smiling back, "please come back anytime."

With that, Niall leaves the shop with a bit of a spring in his step. His already lightened mood gets even better when he gets home to know one, well aware that he had plenty of time to cook, clean, and leave himself a bit of time to read.

He only reads a few pages before Kye gets home. Then he spends the rest of his afternoon gagging on his knees while Kye watches the game with his hand pressed to the back of Niall’s head.

For the next two days, he always looks at the bookshop when he passes it but doesn’t go inside. He doesn’t have any reason to go inside, and if he’s late again, there’s no way he’ll be able to avoid anything bad happening the way he did last time. It’s been a while since he’s been struck, and he doesn’t want to ruin this.

The next day, at work, someone brings out a few boxes during his lunch break.

"What’s this?" he asks.

"Just some books we don’t need anymore," his co-worker explains, "we’ll probably be throwing them out."

Niall rummages through some of the boxes. The paperback copies are in quite poor condition, but it seems like such a waste to just throw them out. He gathers all of the books that are still readable and puts them in a box that he write his name on. This is a normal reason to go to the bookshop that carries used books; he just has a few donations to make.

When he walks in with the heavy box, the shop is empty and Louis is nowhere to be found. Niall almost considers leaving the box and leaving to make sure he isn’t late.

"Niall!" He hears the familiar voice call out. He looks up to see Louis walking towards him with that contagious grin on his face. "Good to see you again!"

"H-hey, I got some donations for you," he stutters, holding up the box. "I noticed you carry used books so I figured you must take ‘em."

Louis looks surprised to see the box in his hands. “Yeah, of course,” he says, “here, let me help you with that.”

Louis takes the box from Niall’s hands and moves them onto a table. “These from your daycare?” he asks. “Y’know, you never told me about that place. I’d still like to hear about.”

Niall looks down at his feet. “I just came to drop these off actually. I have to get going.”

"You live that way, right?" Louis nudges Niall and gestures to the general direction Niall always walks home in. "You can walk with me to my flat. We close early on Friday’s, and I was just about to shut down."

So they walk down the street and Niall tells him about the daycare. He talks about his favorite kids and the one’s who drive him crazy; he tells him some adorable stories and Louis seems genuinely interested. The conversation, as usual, flows in to a few different topics before they reach Louis’ flat which is, believe it or not, only two blocks from Niall’s place.

When he reaches his own place, Kye’s parking spot is empty. Niall releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding and makes his way into the building and straight up the stairs. He has plenty time to clean the entire flat, clean the dishes, throw in a load of laundry, and start dinner before Kye gets home.

"Hey, babe," Niall greets, now that he’s perfectly relaxed. "How was you’re day?"

"Fine," he says, setting his coat and briefcase on the back of a chair. "I’ve got another fucking meeting tomorrow. What’s for dinner?" he asks.

"Pasta," Niall answers, "Sound good?"

"Hm… I guess." The washing machine beeps from the laundry room and Niall set the strainer down in the sink.

"I’ll get that," he says.

"No, no, you stay here," Kye offers, coming up behind Niall and pecking a kiss on his neck. "I’ll get it."

Niall smiles warmly as he watches him move out of the room.  _This is going to be a good night._

"Hey, Niall?" his voice yells from the other room. "Did you throw my shirt in the wash?"

Niall looks over his shoulder at the man walking back into the room, holding a crumpled, white button-up… one that’s usually sent to the dry cleaners.

"Oh, babe, I’m sorry!" Niall scurries over to take the item in his hands and view the damage for himself. "It must’ve gotten mixed up with the other lights in your laundry."

Kye scoffs. “Oh, so this is my fault?”

A knot twists in Niall’s stomach when he realizes his poor choice of words. “No! No, that’s not what I meant! I’m sorry, I just didn’t see it.”

"And what if I wanted to wear this shirt tomorrow to that meeting?"

"Well, you’ve got quite a few like this one," Niall suggests. He’s pretending to still examine the piece of clothing as a way to avoid eye contact.

Rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger, Kye lets out an annoyed sigh. “So, it’s worthless then? You can ruin a perfectly good,  _expensive_  t-shirt so long as there are others out there like it,” he mocks. “For god’s sake, Niall, money doesn’t just grow on tree.”

There’s a large, dry lump hanging in the back of Niall’s throat. He wants to cry, but he can’t. Crying always makes it worse.

"I’m sorry, it was an accident," he whispers, attempting not to reveal the shakiness in his voice.

"Speak up when I talking to you!" He’s suddenly yelling, and Niall feels the first blow. It sends him straight into the kitchen counter, which he manages to catch himself on so he doesn’t fall to the floor.

"I don’t ask for much, Niall," he continues to scream at him. "How hard is it not to and fuck those things up!?"

Niall can’t stop himself from crying now. He’s leaning over the table, his left eye throbbing. He tries to turn away to hide the tears, but he’s suddenly pulled back by his hair.

"What the fuck are you crying about?"

"I’m sorry," Niall whimpers. "It was an accident. It won’t happen again, I promise.

Kye’s face softens but doesn’t let go of his locks.

"Can’t we just forget about this," he begs, "eat dinner and call it a night?

"I’m not hungry," he says flatly. "Let’s just go to bed."

Kye takes his hand and drags him out of the kitchen, leaving the bowl of noodles on the counter, the sauce on the stove, and the bread on the cutting board. When they reach the bedroom, he turns face to face with Niall and wraps his hands around the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I got upset,” he sighs without any true remorse in his tone. “Just be more careful next time…”

"I will," Niall says quietly, "I really am sorry."

Kye kisses him. It’s fast and rough, but it’s good. Really, it is! It’s just, Niall thinks he might like to take things slow for once. The soreness from a few nights ago had just gone away. He feels his body weight being thrown onto the bed, looking up at his partner crawling over him.

"No one will ever love you like I do," a low voice hisses, hot against his ear. Niall tries to swallow the lump in his throat while he nods his head. "I’m the only one you’ll ever have. I’m the only one you’ll ever need."

The next morning Niall feels the weight on the other side of the bed shift away earlier than usual. He watches his husband get dressed for his meeting through tired eyes, buttoning his shirt in the mirror—probably not his first choice—and sitting on the edge of the bed to tie his oxfords. “You’re up?” Kye says when he finally notices Niall watching him.

Niall tries to sit up but freezes in trying not to gasp at the back and pelvic pains he hadn’t noticed before. Kye touches his chin and guides him to turn his head so he can look at the side of his face.

"Your eye’s a bit purple," he says. "You’ll have to cover that up before you go out today. We need groceries."

Niall’s become quite good at applying cover-up. It’s not that he has anything to hide, but people won’t understand. Kye loves him and he loves Kye. He’s the only one that will ever love him, even if he gets a little upset sometimes.

Kye leans in to kiss Niall’s forehead and mumbles, “I love you, bye,” into his messy hair. Niall lays there for while after he leaves until he can bring himself to his feet. It’s just a little sore, it will go away soon enough.

He has a lot to do before he goes out. He starts by putting the pasta away and hides it in the back of the refrigerator (Kye doesn’t like leftovers, but Niall hates to be wasteful), he cleans the entire kitchen, picks up around the flat, and makes himself look presentable enough to show himself at the market.

On his way back, he approaches the bookshop. Louis’ just unlocking the door and flipping the closed sign to open. Niall doesn’t really feel like going straight home… for  _some_  reason. It’s okay to talk to other people, even if it’s someone who just happens to be quite cute and one of the the friendliest people Niall’s met. He walks straight for the door.

"Niall!" Louis says, sounding quite happy to see the lad.

"Hey Louis," Niall breathes through a meek voice.

Louis’ light smile suddenly changes as his brow furrows into a confused demeanor. “What.. what happened to the scars near your eye,” he suddenly asked.

Niall brought a hand to his temple and felt the familiar surface of the course cover-up. “I, um… I- I,” he really doesn’t know how to answer this one. Does he say that he’s wearing makeup? Will Louis ask why he would do that? His face is hot. Now he’s about the possibility of only one cheek blushing bright red due to the thick layer of makeup on only one side of his face. “I- I…”

There’s a prominent look of concern washed over Louis’ face as he unlocks the door to the bookshop again. He pulls Niall in by his wrist and shuts the door behind them, guiding him to some of the chairs in the back of the shop. Niall hadn’t even realized that he had started to tear up, but now he couldn’t catch his breath.

"I think I’ve still got some hot water left in the pot, I’ll make some tea," Louis says, squeezing Niall’s shoulder and giving a comforting nod.

He comes back not a second later with two mugs of steaming water with tea bags hanging out the sides. He sits close to Niall and sets the cups on the table in front of them. His hand sits warmly on the other man’s knee. “Niall, what’s going on?”

Niall struggles to catch his breath but, when he does, he can’t help but spill everything. He told him about when it first started, how it spiraled into a somewhat regular thing, and he has to reassure Louis that it definitely doesn’t happen all the time, but he always seems to be walking on eggshells. He explains that they’ve developed a set of unwritten rules between each other, and when Niall accidentally breaks one—because there are  _a lot_  to keep track of—that’s when it gets really bad.

Louis’ worried facial expression has quickly turned into one of anger. He sets his hands on Niall’s shoulders and speaks through gritted teeth. “Niall, you have to leave him…”

"No!" Niall pushes him off and stands up. "I can’t. He loves me, and I love him."

Louis stands up too. “But Niall-“

"You don’t understand!" Niall’s crying again, hysterically this time. "No one ever understands."

Niall runs out of the store. He can’t believe what he just told another person. What if he tries to do something? What if he tries to get Kye taken away? He’s so, so stupid! He deserves to get hit.

He doesn’t know what time it is, but he’s afraid to check. He just gets home as fast as he can, trying to rid any trace of tears before he walks through the door.

The first thing he sees is Kye, adjusting a beautiful bouquet of red roses at the table. Niall walks in the room, a bit confused, and Kye looks up from the flowers and walks towards him.

"Hey baby," he coos, "I missed you."

"Hey," Niall mumbles as he’s being pulled into a tight hug, "I missed you too."

"I got you something," Kye says excitedly as he pulls Niall towards the table.

Niall reluctantly takes the small box being held out to him. “What’s this for?” he asks.

"Can’t a guy just get something nice for his husband whom he loves?"

Niall smiles at the man in front of him. He opens the box to reveal a shiny Rolex watch. It must have been bloody expensive. Then the memory of Louis’ face after he had told him everything washes over him again and a bit of fear bubbles up in him again. He mentally shakes it off, though, deciding that Louis probably won’t get involved.

"And I’m sorry about last night," he admits, "I love you. Let’s just forget about all that."

The two bring their face close. “Of course,” Niall agrees, “I love you too.”

That night they enjoy dinner on the couch, watching a movie and exchanging sweet kisses. And it’s perfect. When they make love—not have sex, not fuck—Niall hardly notices the soreness from the night before. But he feels guilty. He wishes he could take back everything he said to Louis. Go back in time and never stop to see him.

He doesn’t go back to see Louis after that. He didn’t seem to say anything to anybody, but Niall can’t face him after everything he knows now. Especially when things are so well with Kye. There have been a few slip ups, but it’s been great between the two of them for the most part.

It’s been a few weeks since Niall actually saw Louis, but he still passes the bookshop to and from work every day. Today, Niall’s got a very little (but still visible) bruise near his eye. He really didn’t feel like covering it up and decided that it looks just like something had fallen from a high shelf as he was reaching for it and hit him right there… a cookbook, maybe.

But of course, as he’s walking home on Friday, Louis’ flipping the Open sign to Closed and locking the doors. Niall freezes—and he has no idea why—when Louis looks up. Niall’s never seen so much sadness in another person’s eyes before… so much disappointment. Did he cause that? How could he possibly inflict so much a emotion on another person?

When he realized the two of them are just staring at each other, he tries to crack a smile. Louis smiles back, but he couldn’t do anything to mask the sorrow that Niall can so clearly see from ten feet away.

Averting his eyes from the other man, he keeps his head down as he walks past. He wonders if he’s following close behind, because he knows his flat is in the same direction, but he doesn’t dare look back.

That night, while his loving, devoted husband is holding him tight, all he can think about is Louis.  _Louis, Louis, Louis._  He tries to block out the pictures in his mind, because it isn’t fair to Kye, but he can’t shake the feeling he got when he saw that look of despair across his friend’s face. How could he let another person feel that way.

He didn’t think he’d ever talk to Louis again, but on a day in early Winter—it’s snowing just a little bit—Niall forgets his lunch. Like any other day he forgets something, he goes home during his break. When he gets there, though, he’s a little surprised to see Kye’s car parked in his spot when he’s supposed to be at work.

The door to their flat is still locked. When he walks in Kye’s nowhere to be found. “Kye?” he calls out, but there’s no answer. Hesitantly, he decides to check their room.

"Kye?" he repeats lowly as he slowly opens the door. He suddenly freezes.

"Niall!" Kye shouts when he realizes the other man standing at the door.

Niall runs out of them room. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” he cries to himself, pulling at his hair.

"Niall, wait!" Kye calls out at he follows him into the kitchen with nothing but a throw pillow to cover himself. He acts like he has something to explain but all he does is stutter, "Niall, I- I- um…"

He hears the awkward clearing of a throat and looks to where it’s coming from. The man who was naked and in a rather compromising position just moments ago is now pulling on a shirt and briskly walking towards the door with his eyes glued to the floor. Niall watches him with hot cheeks as he leaves.

"H-how could you do this?" Niall cries through gritted teeth as he turns to his husband. He can’t decide if he’s angry or sad but he definitely hates this feeling.

Kye sighs. “You… you never do anything exciting, Niall,” Kye says defensively. He’s still holding a pillow in front of himself. “How can you expect me not to look somewhere else when I’m hardly getting anything from you. I have needs!”

Niall doesn’t know what to say. “I… I’m sorry,” he mutters as a force of habit. “But what do you want me to do?”

Kye starts to look irritated. “Let’s not talk about this now,” he breaths, “I’m sorry.” He tries to bring Niall into a hug but is pushed away.

"Niall, don’t be mellow dramatic," he says.

"I just…" Niall backs away and heads towards the door. "I just need a minute."

Before Kye can say another word, Niall’s out the door and trying to make his way out of the building as fast as he can. He walks aimlessly down the street, trying not to cause many stares with his obvious sobbing. When he reaches Louis’ bookshop, he stops.

He wipes as many tears from his face as he’s able as he pushes his way through the door. The jingling sound of the door causes Louis’ head to turn, and his eyes freeze on Niall.

"Hey," he says, no emotion in his face yet.

There are other people in the shop. Why did he even come here? He can’t say anything. What is Louis even supposed to do? Niall just stands and stares back at Louis, dumbfounded.

Louis pauses a moment, then he nudges his head towards another door behind him. “Let’s talk back here,” he says quietly.

Niall follows him without a word and steps into a storage room behind the front desk. Louis shuts the door behind them and looks straight at Niall.

"I’m sorry to show up like this," Niall says.

"No, no, it’s fine. Just talk to me. Did he hit you again?"

Niall shakes his head and looks at the floor. “No, not this time,” he says. “He, um… he-“

He’s unable to keep his voice steady. He’s crying again and Louis pulling him closer, trying to comfort him. “I walked in on him with another man,” he says into Louis’ shoulder.

Louis pulls away and looks at him. “Niall, I’m so sorry,” he sighs. “I- I… I feel so stupid, I should have told you this a long time ago but,” Louis pauses and looks into Louis’ confused, damp eyes, “when I told you that my ex works for his company, well, we broke up because he cheated on me… with his boss.”

Niall takes a deep breath.

"I didn’t want to say anything in case it was someone else or something," Louis continues, "but I wish I would’ve warned you earlier. Niall, please tell me you’ll leave him now."

Niall steps away. “I- I have to go back to work.”

"Wait," Louis calls out softly, grabbing Niall by the arm as he’s walking out of the room. "Don’t go back there. Come straight here after work, promise me that?"

Niall nods. “I promise.”

_Sliding the legal documents back into the beige folder and setting them on the table, Niall lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He closes his eyes and rubs his temples, trying to relax himself._

_"It’s over," he hears a voice say as a warm hand clutches his shoulder, "he can’t bother you anymore."_

_Niall opens his eyes and looks into the one’s sitting next him. “Is it terrible that I don’t feel good about this?”_

_"You will," Louis reassures, "just give it some time._

_"Thanks, Lou," Niall sighs, "for everything. You’ve done so much for me—given me a place to stay, helped me with the restraining order and divorce, didn’t kick me out when I was acting absolutely crazy—and I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you. You’re the best of friends a person could ever have."_

_Louis looks down as his face creeps into a smile. “Niall,” he says, “can I tell you something?”_

_"Course…"_

_"I want you to know that it broke my heart to learn about the things Kye did to you. I couldn’t understand how someone could be so cruel to someone so… wonderful," Louis’ voice is shaking, "after that, I couldn’t stop thinking about you and where you were and what was happening to you. It became obvious that I… that…"_

_"I understand," he continues slowly, "if you’re not ready yet for another relationship. But, if you’re okay with it, I like to think of us as… more than friends?"_

_Niall turns away from Louis. He can’t help but let a tear fall from his eye._

_"Niall," Louis whispers, "If you’re not…"_

_"All this time," Niall sniffles, "I kept telling myself that somebody could love me, but I couldn’t make myself believe it. Now you’re sitting here, telling me that you love me. Of all the people in the world, it’s you." Niall brings his eyes up to meet Louis’ which are now shedding their own tears. "Louis, I love you."_

_They kiss. It’s short; it’s soft; it’s something neither of them expected._

_Louis keeps his face close to Niall’s and grins straight at him. “I love you too,” he says. And for the first time for as long as he can remember, Niall feels like everything is going to be okay._


End file.
